11/19/2010

Japan Arrests Yakuza Underboss

In Japan police have arrested Kiypshi Takayama, the one-eyed suspected underboss of the 40,000 member Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate and its presumed acting leader since the 2005 imprisonment of reputed boss Kenichi Shinoda, for allegedly extorting $500,000 from a construction executive as reported by Mure Dickie for the Financial Times. In recent years authorities have moved more aggressively "to sever the deep-rooted ties between organized crime and corporate Japan, especially in the construction industry" as reported by Hiroko Tabuchi for The New York Times: "across Japan, almost 83,000 gangsters operate in 22 crime syndicates, according to police data, that contribute to a mob-controlled economy worth an estimated 20 trillion yen ($242 billion) a year."